Wikivoyage talk:Featured events

Earlier this year, when it was pointed out that the Olympics were coming up and our Main Page had no mention of them, I initiated the "Featured event" section on the Main Page. With suggestions from other editors, I have updated this every 2-4 weeks, focussing on multinational events.

I think that this feature helps show that Wikivoyage is an active, frequently updated site, unlike other wiki-based travel sites.

Two questions for discussion:


 * 1) Do we want to continue this feature in 2019?
 * 2) What events should be featured?

Choosing events is challenging, especially where there is overlap in dates. There are lots of multinational, multisport events that could fill up the whole calendar, but I think we should have a mix by including cultural and religious events. I've started a list below, including the event dates. When the list is more settled, we can determine the dates the events would be featured. I propose to continue to feature events for up to a month.


 * World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama, 22-27 January
 * European Capital of Culture, Matera Italy and Plovdiv Bulgaria (feature in February?)
 * Winter Universiade 2019, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 2-12 March
 * 2019 South Asian Games, in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal, 9–18 March
 * Special Olympics World Summer Games, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 14–21 March
 * Eurovision song contest, Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 May
 * Cricket World Cup, England and Wales, 30 May-14 July
 * Travelling during Ramadan, 6 May–3 June
 * WorldPride New York, 1-30 June
 * 2019 Summer Universiade, Naples, Italy, 3-14 July
 * 2019 Pacific Games, Apia, Samoa, 8-20 July
 * Wikimania, Stockholm, 14-18 August
 * Pan American/Parapan American Games, in Lima, Peru, 26 July 26-1 September
 * Toronto International Film Festival, 5–15 September
 * Rugby World Cup, Japan, 20 September-2 November
 * Oktoberfest, Munich, 21 September-6 October
 * 12th African Games, in Casablanca, Morocco, 14-31 October
 * Southeast Asian Games, the Philippines, 29 November-10 December

Please discuss. Ground Zero (talk) 05:24, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

Do we want to continue this feature in 2019?

 * Yes --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 09:32, 2 October 2018 (UTC)
 * These events are around the whole world and I’m not sure if most travelers would be interested in them. I mean, does anyone go around the world attending these festivals? What significance do they really have besides their hometown? In regards to the page looking up to date, anyone who follows the trivia and the travel features for just a few days will see that Wikivoyage is not an abandoned website. --Comment by Selfie City  (talk about my contributions ) 00:49, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes -- Matroc (talk) 04:59, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes. Most events won't appeal to everyone but there are people that specifically travel for various events. I know many people who travelled to Russia last year just for the FIFA World Cup. It's better to post the events on the main page before the event has begun or the first half (when there is a still a chance that it may convince with money and time on their hands) rather than when it is too late to book tickets. But I guess many readers will just read out of curiosity too which is just as valid. Gizza ( roam ) 05:54, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I was skeptical of this feature at first, but I've kind of come around. I'm not yet convinced that it's all that helpful to travellers, but it does help showcase the range and timeliness of content that we aim to cover, and it probably has SEO benefits too. Count me as neutral. —Granger (talk · contribs) 12:02, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

What events should be featured?
That list looks pretty comprehensive. Maybe put the European Capital of Culture in February since nothing else is happening there (yet)?--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 09:34, 2 October 2018 (UTC)
 * BTW, I know that Ramadan happens every year, but are there not other religions' festivals which have bearing on travel which we could use instead, rather than featuring the same article almost a year to the day afterwards? --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 09:38, 2 October 2018 (UTC)
 * It is a good list so far - there may be more but I don't really have a clue as to what to add - also could add a caveat to visit various article pages for local events? -- Matroc (talk) 05:07, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * There is the Rugby World Cup in Japan from 20 September to 2 November and Cricket World Cup in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July. Both sports are quite popular in the non-North American English-speaking world and are more popular than some of the regional-level games like South Asian. Don't know if a separate page should be created like with FIFA or if it would be easier to link to the countries. I agree with ThunderingTyphoons about avoiding featuring the same event/article as one last year, if possible. Events that happen every 4 (or any number greater than 1) years should be higher priority over an event that happens annually. But if we can't find any festivals or anything else to fill in that space, then an annual event is still a good backup. Gizza ( roam ) 05:54, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Can more than 1 event be posted - we have a year long event and multiple events during the year that will occur while that event is happening and then up-and-coming events (perhaps a 30-day advance notice?) -- Matroc (talk) 07:17, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
 * And what about sports events for individual sports? Some of those would overlap. --Comment by Selfie City  (talk about my contributions ) 13:41, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
 * 8 / 15 suggestions are sport events, which seems like a lot to me. But then, I'm not very interested in or knowledgeable about sports. Perhaps the list could at least be limited to global and pan-continental games? On a different topic, I actually think that it is a good idea to feature seasonal/recurring events such as Ramadan and Christmas every year. As they are not place specific, they are way more likely to affect a traveler than any other events. Just consider the number of people who travel during Christmas compared to the number of people who visit the ESC. These events are also more likely to have articles of their own. With this in mind, maybe we should also consider featuring Easter travel, Day of the Dead and Halloween? Finally, is there any special reason to feature Toronto International Film Festival, compared to other film festivals/other regional festivals? E.g. Cannes and Oktoberfest strikes me as at least as important. MartinJacobson (talk) 13:44, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
 * All the important holidays need to be here. --Comment by Selfie City  (talk about my contributions ) 13:48, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I haven't responded because I didn't want to be managing the discussion, and wanted to see where it would go. Here are some of my thoughts: What do people think about featuring more than one event at a time? One issue would be that I've been including a picture or a logo for each event, which would not work as well for two events. Ground Zero (talk) 19:44, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I think Ramadan has a higher impact on travellers because in many places restaurants don't open during the day for a whole month. I don't think that Christmas and Easter have as big an impact on travellers as they typically result in shops and restaurants closing for a day or two. But, maybe we should have a separate line for current holidays. I'd really love to have an article on Golden Week, which is, I understand, a really difficult time to travel in China. It's on my to-do list.
 * I don't really think that this feature is useful for people planning to attend an event in the future since we are featuring events while they happen. It is useful for people who are there now and are looking for information, and for armchair travellers who hear about an event and want to read about what travelling there would entail. But to be current, we can't feature the future.
 * I've added the rugby and cricket events to the list for now, but I agree that sports events take it a lot of space here. I think thete is a good argument for multisport events and association football (soccer), but there are just too many single sport world championships to include.
 * I tried to find cultural events that would have as global a reach -- Canbes and Toronto seem to be the most important film festivals, but Cannes overlaps with other events on the list, so I didn't include it. I also think that Cannes is more of an industry event, whereas Toronto is more open to ordinary fans.
 * I've added Oktoberfest.
 * Yes on featuring more than one event at a time. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:26, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Let me just register my opposition to featuring "Oktoberfest"... That third rate waste of beer is not and should not be relevant outside of that weird mountain tribe that thinks itself all-important... Hobbitschuster (talk) 15:57, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Maybe annual religious/cultural events that could affect travel could be indicated by a one-liner that follows this model:
 * "Ramadan takes place 6 May–3 June and could affect your travel in predominantly Muslim regions" (Christmas in predominantly Christian regions, Golden Week in China, "We Hate Bavarians" Week in other parts of Germany)....
 * Ground Zero (talk) 17:33, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
 * As a soulless "responsible adult" with an allergy to all things saccharine and slushy, I resent the enthusiastic coverage we have of Disney parks, but recognise that my personal dislike has nothing to do with anything. Fact is, lots of people love Oktoberfest, 100,000s travel to Munich every year to experience it, and hundreds of imitators have been spawned all over the world. Right now, it's Hampshire Oktoberfest in Basingrad, while I was invited to the British-German Association's version at the Octoberfest pub in London next Friday (Hobbit will be delighted to know I declined the invite on grounds of a passionately held Germanophobia the price).
 * In all seriousness, we can oppose events being listed, but let's decide based on what's best for Wikivoyage and its users.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 18:12, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Generally, the main page featured events have been fine, but I think posting the latest featured event on the main page is unwise, due to all the scandals recently involving the Catholic church.
 * Are there any other international events we could feature? --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk | contributions ) 22:57, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
 * World Youth Day is a huge international event, but other suggestions would be welcome. Ground Zero (talk) 23:07, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
 * With New Year's Day less than a week away, I think that's a consideration. That is covered in the same article as Christmas, right? --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk | contributions ) 23:26, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Some other events we could feature are the Nobel Prize (though it always is held in Stockholm), the Academy Awards/Oscars (same but in Los Angeles), The Fields Medal, some of the big beauty pageants like Miss Universe and Miss World (while you can be critical of what they represent you can do that for many events here and it allows us to showcase cities that may not otherwise appear on the main page), political summits of the G7, G20, APEC, etc. (ditto). Gizza ( roam ) 00:04, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm not sure why anyone would go on a vacation to visit a political event, but anyway... maybe go with the Nobel Prize or something. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk | contributions ) 00:28, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Why not? I've heard there are great parties by participants at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:11, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Do the Nobel prize, Oscars, Fields, etc., have events that the general public can attend? Or are they pretty much for members of respective academies? I would think that we'd be focussing on things that lots of people might be able to attend, rather than just headline events. Ground Zero (talk) 03:28, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
 * There would be officials and diplomats going to political events. For them, it's more like business travel but it's still within Wikivoyage's scope. You may get a diplomat having a meeting in afternoon and then deciding where to have dinner in the city, though I don't know how much freedom they tend to have. But you're right, more accessible events should be a higher priority. Perhaps we could add some well known music festivals like Summerfest and Tomorrowland for variety. Gizza ( roam ) 04:28, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
 * If we are looking for a January event, either for 2019 or for later - Up Helly Aa is held in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands on the last Tuesday in January (Tuesday 29th January 2019). For 1 January, Gisborne is the first town in the world to see the first sunrise of the year, and the Rhythm and Vines music festival is on at the same time. AlasdairW (talk) 09:25, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

A bigger question is whether other people actually have a problem with featuring a Catholic event. I don't have much regard for the Catholic Church, but 6 million people attended mass at the last Youth Day in 2015. I think that makes it an international event that is of interest to vastly more people than national or local events that attract tens of thousands. Should Wikivoyage pass judgement and exclude a Catholic event because misdeeds by some of its priests and some of its leaders? What about sexual abuse by athletes and musicians and artists?

I'll also note that we have World Pride on the schedule for June. Some people will be offended by that, but more importantly, a lot of readers may be interested in attending it, or at least being aware of it as they may want to avoid Manhattan at that time, just as some will want to avoid the boisterous crowds of Catholic youth in Panama City during WYD. I don't think we should be screening out major travel events that of interest to many based on the sensitivities of some. Ground Zero (talk) 15:01, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

22 Mar-17 Apr
I'm at a loss for what to feature for this period. I can't find anything that really fits with the idea of a high-profile multinational event. Here are two ideas. I invite comments. I invite comments and other ideas. Ground Zero (talk) 22:10, 12 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Songkran (Thailand) -- the Thai New Year and national holiday. Major streets are closed to traffic, and are used as arenas for water fights. This isn't a multinational event, but would provide balance to our tendency to choose developed world events.
 * 1) Feature the European Capitals of Culture again.
 * D'oh. I overlooked Easter, which is an obvious one for this time of the year. I have put that on the schedule. Ground Zero (talk) 23:42, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Events for 2020
—The preceding comment was added by Ground Zero (talk • contribs)
 * Christmas
 * Easter
 * Travelling during Ramadan 24 April – 23 May 2020
 * Golden Week
 * 2020 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship	8–24 May
 * UEFA Euro 2020: 12 June – 12 July
 * Tokyo 2020: 24 July-9 Aug
 * Cannes Film Festival: May
 * Expo 2020 in Dubai: 20 Oct 2020 - 10 Apr 2021
 * Diwali November 14


 * Good set of choices. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 15:34, 3 April 2019 (UTC)


 * A couple of spectator sports events:
 * w:2020 IIHF World Championship (as per the table in WP, ice hockey world championships were first held during the 1920 Winter Olympics so this would be the centennial)
 * w:UEFA Euro 2020
 * Tokyo 2020 -- ϒψιλον (<font color="#333333">talk ) 15:59, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Good discoveries --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 17:55, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
 * User:Ypsilon: thanks for the suggestions. I'm just dropping things here as they occur to me to make it easier to prepare a list later in the year. Please add any other ideas you come up with. Ground Zero (talk) 18:30, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Expo 2020 in Dubai starts October 20. This might merit its own article, by the way – we have Past events/Expo 2015 for the last universal exposition in Milan. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:46, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Great. I've added it. Ground Zero (talk) 14:54, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
 * There will be solar eclipses on June 21 and December 14, 2020. Each could be featured for maybe a week or two beforehand. —Granger (talk · contribs) 00:36, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia links
While I generally like the idea of helping readers find more information by linking to to Wikipedia, I don't think we want to provide links on the Main Page that will take our readers out of Wikivoyage right away. I thinking would be better to put these links in the destination articles. What do others think? Ground Zero (talk) 10:53, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Yes, wouldn't want to put the Wikipedia link on the main page. I was just putting it on the list to provide further info. -- WOSlinker (talk) 12:37, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Image for World Pride in New York City
It's a struggle finding a photo from the commons to illustrate an event that hasn't occured yet. Here are two images I'm considering for the upcoming World Pride festival in New York City. Which is better? Does anyone have any other suggestions? Ground Zero (talk) 03:41, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I think Image A (from World Pride 2012) is very good; Image B is not bad either. By the time this goes on the main page, the event will already have been going on for almost two weeks, so an even better image may turn up during that time. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:36, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I prefer the 2nd image. It seems neater, is more brightly lit and is nicely iconic. Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:51, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I prefer Image A because it connects to a parade, which is central to Pride festivals. But if someone finds something better before it goes up, that would be good. Ground Zero (talk) 21:30, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Next featured event
I had a little trouble updating the featured event, but I followed a previous change's info and got it right in the end. Sorry if anyone saw text the wrong size or incorrectly displayed. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 01:05, 1 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I have additionally done the next one slightly early, but as the Pacific Games are almost over, it seems pointless to still display them. Therefore, I have added the next event. People should then have more time to plan their trip. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 16:03, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Christmas markets (again)
Someone suggested that we feature the Christmas markets article in December. We did feature it last year, so I would hope to find something else for this December instead of repeating that. Any suggestions? (I would include a link to Christmas and New Year travel in the text for that period, but not as the featured event.) A couple of ideas: Ground Zero (talk) 02:38, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Winter sports
 * 2020 PDC World Darts Championship inLondon, UK 13 Dec-1 Jan)


 * Another possibility for this December is the annular eclipse on December 26, which could be featured, say, from the 19th to the 26th. —Granger (talk · contribs) 00:37, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

2020
A while ago I noticed there were no events listed to be featured after new year and spent some time googling up different events to try to fill the first couple of months of 2020. As some events overlap (especially in May where I didn't add anything because there were already 4 events overlapping...), some of them can be saved for later years. --Ypsilon (talk) 20:17, 12 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your suggestions, . There are some really good ones there. I've put in send suggested dates for featuring some of the events.
 * A problem is that there are so many things going on around the world that it can be hard to choose which ones to feature. Because of the work involved in changing the featured event on the main page, I think we should try to feature an event for 3-4 weeks ago a time in most cases, rather than a few days at a time. I'd like to focus this on international events, so U.S.-focused events like Burning Man and the start of the baseball season may not be the best choices, even though there will be people around the world  interested in them. Similarly, an event like the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival, which are film industry events that are not open to the general public may not be a good choice because our readers can't attend them.
 * I like the pond hockey tournament because it is quirky and may grab readers' attention, but I realise the the Arctic Games are also being held in Canada later in the winter, and featuring two Canadian events so close together might not be ideal.
 * I'd love to hear what others think. Ground Zero (talk) 02:17, 25 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Some (or many) of them can be saved for the next years, so we don't have to run the same events every year.
 * For the film events, Cannes was already there, so I added the Academy Awards also. You cannot attend the events yourself, but I figured it would be a good time to spot famous actors and directors in the cities. --Ypsilon (talk) 09:21, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Massive list of events
I've been collecting these for a while when working on WV:Discover and otherwise, and as the collection has IMO grown a little too big to dump on the article itself all at once I'm placing them here instead. These are recurring events, most of them taking place every year.

General

 * Aviation history
 * w:FIFA tournaments (football), mens, womens, youth, global and continental (generally every 4 years)
 * w:FIBA tournaments (basketball), mens, womens, youth, global and continental (generally every 4 years)
 * Olympic games
 * w:IIHF tournaments (ice hockey), mens, womens, youth (generally yearly)
 * w:Baltic song festivals (every 4 or 5 years)
 * w:UCI World tour events (cycling), multiple yearly
 * w:World Marathon Majors, multiple yearly
 * w:FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, yearly

Articles with many events

 * Belgium
 * Jakarta
 * Malacca

Jan

 * w:Thorrablot, Iceland Jan-Feb

Feb

 * Carnivals especially in Europe and Latin America
 * 1-15 Feb Surajkund Mela, India
 * 1st Sunday in Feb, Indian Derby
 * Iron dog snomobile race, Nome (Alaska)

Mar

 * 17 March, St. Patrick's day in Ireland and elsewhere with Irish communities
 * South by Southwest, a major music festival in Austin
 * Holi, India
 * Iditarog sled dog race, Nome (Alaska)

Apr

 * Rand show around Easter, Johannesburg
 * Songkran Bangkok, also elsewhere in Thailand
 * w:Hannover Messe
 * Feria de Abril

May

 * w:Isle of Man TT
 * Royal Ploughing Ceremony Bangkok

Jul

 * 6-14 Jul Running of the bulls, Pamplona
 * 11-13 Jul Naadam, Ulaanbaatar

Aug

 * Canadian death race, Grand Cache
 * Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang
 * 10 days in Aug Perahera, Kandy
 * La Tomatina, Buñol

Sep

 * State Fair of Texas, Dallas

Oct

 * 3rd week, Massakara festival, Bacolod
 * Golden Eagle Festival, Ölgii
 * Cinema Festival, Brasilia

Nov

 * 2 Nov Day of the Dead, Mexico
 * Pushkar Mela, India
 * Loi Krathong & Yi Peng, Bangkok also elsewhere in Thailand

Dec

 * late Dec Nakayama Daishogai (Horse racing)
 * Trooping of the Colours, Bangkok
 * w:Four Hills Tournament - 29 Dec-6 Jan yearly

More info about the events in the linked articles. --Ypsilon (talk) 18:45, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

Restarting this
Before the pandemic we featured ongoing or was it upcoming events in a the lower right corner of the Main Page. Are folks interested in restarting this section now or maybe sometime later or should we just leave it? Ypsilon (talk) 15:34, 12 October 2022 (UTC)